Lower Accident Rates Research Articles

The Value of Hiring through Employee Referrals *

AbstractUsing personnel data from nine large firms in three industries (call centers, trucking, and high-tech), we empirically assess the benefit to firms of hiring through employee referrals. Compared to nonreferred applicants, referred applicants are more likely to be hired and more likely to accept offers, even though referrals and nonreferrals have similar skill characteristics. Referred workers tend to have similar productivity compared to nonreferred workers on most measures, but referred workers have lower accident rates in trucking and produce more patents in high-tech. Referred workers are substantially less likely to quit and earn slightly higher wages than nonreferred workers. In call centers and trucking, the two industries for which we can calculate worker-level profits, referred workers yield substantially higher profits per worker than nonreferred workers. These profit differences are driven by lower turnover and lower recruiting costs for referrals.

The Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Children's Health, Quality of Home Environment, and Non-Cognitive Skills

In 1993, the benefit levels of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) were changed significantly based on the number of children in the household. Employing a difference-in-differences plus mother fixed-effects framework, we find better mother-rated health for children of unmarried black mothers and married white and Hispanic mothers, lower accident rates for children of married white and Hispanic mothers, and improved home environment quality for children of unmarried white and Hispanic mothers. Our results provide new evidence of the effects of the 1993 EITC expansion and therefore have important policy implications.

Multimedia Technology Used to Reduce Costs and Time

Safety procedures are explained during lectures in basic scuba diving courses, but these rules are often counterintuitive and difficult to remember; many accidents occur because divers do not put into practice what they have been taught. Diving accidents are at higher growth than the growth of activity in the world. This research used multimedia in a virtual environment to detect safety aspects of diving more forgetful among experienced scuba divers. This way it is possible to develop courses more effectively: less cost and time spent and lower accident rate. Were discovered the safety procedures recreational scuba divers more unknown among accredited divers. The results showed a large number of errors on all items in particular on the system to keep in pairs. Thus it becomes possible to improve diving courses and/or briefings before dives emphasizing these items, reducing cost and time. As a suggestion for future research, to find ways to improve the performance of divers in case of emergencies, through awareness, education and behavior.

EFFECT OF LANE AND SHOULDER WIDTHS ON ACCIDENT REDUCTION ON RURAL, TWO-LANE ROADS

A study to determine the effect of lane and shoulder widths on accident benefits for rural, two-lane roads and to determine the expected cost-effectiveness of lane and shoulder widening is described. Information concerning geometrics, accidents, and traffic volumes was obtained for more than 25,000 km (15,000 miles) of roads. Run-off-road and opposite-direction accidents were the only accident types found to be associated with narrow lanes and shoulders. Wide lanes had accident rates 10-39 percent lower than those for narrow lanes. Wide shoulders (up to 2.7-m (9-ft) width) were associated with the lower accident rates. Criteria based on a cost-effectiveness approach for selecting highway sections for widening are presented. (Authors)

Relationship Between Organizational Justice and Organizational Safety Climate: Do Fairness Perceptions Influence Employee Safety Behaviour?

This study investigated the relationships between organizational justice, organizational safety climate, job satisfaction, safety compliance and accident frequency. Ghanaian industrial workers participated in the study (N = 320). Safety climate and justice perceptions were assessed with Hayes, Parender, Smecko, et al. ‘s (1998) and Blader and Tyler’s (2003) scales respectively. A median split was performed to dichotomize participants into 2 categories: workers with positive and workers with negative justice perceptions. Confirmatory factors analysis confirmed the 5-factor structure of the safety scale. Regression analyses and t tests indicated that workers with positive fairness perceptions had constructive perspectives regarding workplace safety, expressed greater job satisfaction, were more compliant with safety policies and registered lower accident rates. These findings provide evidence that the perceived level of fairness in an organization is closely associated with workplace safety perception and other organizational factors which are important for safety. The implications for safety research are discussed.

Work-related chemical exposures presenting to an emergency department in Singapore

Singapore is a small industrialized island state with a low accident rate and few hazardous chemical-related injuries reported. However, the use of chemicals continues to increase and pose hazards in the workplace. To study workplace chemical injuries and exposures to improve worksite safety. Work-related chemical exposure cases were identified from emergency department (ED) computerized records from 2007 to 2010. A total of 239 cases were identified. Most of the patients were male (92%) and young adults (73% aged between 21 and 40 years). Fifty per cent of the workers were foreign workers. Most of them were cleaners, labourers and technicians (53%) and worked mainly in the construction and manufacturing industries (47%). All the exposures were acute and presented within 4h of the exposure incident (52%). Most of the chemical exposures were to the eye (55%) and skin (32%). The chemicals involved included corrosives (41%), hydrocarbons (18%) and cleaning solutions (9%). Pre-hospital decontamination (eye and skin irrigation) was performed for 54% of the workers. Antidote treatment with calcium gluconate for hydrofluoric acid exposure was used for five patients in the ED. Only 11% of patients were admitted. Four patients had surgical procedures and five patients had long-term complications. Forty-five incidents were notified to the Ministry of Manpower. The under-reporting rate for cases with >3 days of medical leave was 66%. Work-related chemical exposures that present to the ED had low morbidity. Most of the workers did well with immediate decontamination and supportive treatment but antidotes were required for some exposures.

GIS-based Economic Cost Estimation of Traffic Accidents in St. Louis, Missouri

The economic loss due to total traffic accidents in St. Louis remains high every year. This paper presents an effective approach to spatially identifying potential casualty areas and their economic losses. In this study, five years of traffic accident data, from 2007 to 2011, collected in the City of St. Louis and the adjacent counties, is used. Using Geographic Information System (GIS)-based techniques, e.g. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), two maps are generated and compared: 1) traffic accident rate map based on the number of traffic accidents per year and 2) the economic costs map. The locations with high economic costs but with low accident rates are identified and shown in a 3-D visualization format. The results can be used as a foundation for the traffic accident cost estimation related research and serves as a guideline for practitioners to investigate the areas with high traffic accident severity levels.

Measuring and modelling safety communication in small work crews in the US using social network analysis

Effective safety communication between all parties in a construction project is essential for optimal safety performance. Literature suggests that open safety communication across all levels of the organization enhances safety success. Previous studies have found that open communication and frequent interaction between employees and supervisors differentiate construction companies that have low accident rates from companies that have high rates. Through interviews with construction crew members on active construction projects in the Rocky Mountain region of the US, the patterns of safety communication were identified, modelled, and quantified. Social network analysis (SNA) was utilized to obtain measures of safety communication such as centrality, density, and betweenness within small crews and to generate sociograms that visually depicted communication patterns within effective and ineffective safety networks. A cross-case comparison revealed that the frequency and method of communication are important differentiators between project teams with low and high accident rates. Specifically, top performing crews: (1) have formal safety communication from management on at least a weekly basis; (2) have informal safety communication on a weekly basis; (3) undergo formal safety training; and (4) use all proposed safety communication methods on a monthly basis. In addition, typical SNA metrics, including density, centrality and betweenness, are not significant parameters to distinguish high from low performing crews.

Children's health: Health in Sweden: The National Public Health Report 2012. Chapter 2

Summary The health status of Swedish children is in many respects among the best in the world, as shown by the low infant mortality rate, the high percentage of breastfed infants, the low childhood accident rate, the high proportion of vaccinated children, and the relatively low percentage of children who experience corporal punishment. The low infant mortality rate notwithstanding, the first year of life is a vulnerable period; the number of children who die in this first year is higher than the total for the 1–15 age group. The most common causes of neonatal morbidity are preterm birth and low birth weight due to intrauterine growth retardation. 2.5 per cent of newborns exhibit low birth weight, and 6 per cent are born preterm. These levels have remained the same over the past decade. However, mortality in the first weeks of life continues to decline thanks to increasingly better care during delivery and in the neonatal period. Improvements have also meant that fewer preterm babies now develop cerebral palsy (CP). Stillborn rates, on the other hand, are as high today as they were ten years ago, and stillbirths are more frequent among low-income mothers. Approximately 1.5 per cent of all children are born with malformations or chromosomal anomalies severe enough to cause death or significant functional impairment. The most common chromosomal anomaly is Down’s syndrome, a condition more common among offspring to older women. At present, 20–25 children are born annually with spina bifida (meningomyelocele) and approximately 80 pregnancies are terminated after the disorder has been detected during prenatal ultrasound examination. In the 1–15 age group, accidents account for a quarter of all deaths among girls and a third among boys. Twenty per cent of deaths are caused by cancer. Mortality due to accidents is low during childhood up until the teen years and gender differences are small. Sweden has one of the world’s lowest child mortality rates in the 1-15 age-group. This is primarily due to the low child accident mortality rate. Since the turn of the century, however, the rate of infant hospitalisation due to unintentional or intentional injury has increased, as has hospitalisation of 14–16-year-olds due to severe injuries from moped and motorcycle accidents. Children in the 5 th grade of compulsory school

Slys á hættulegustu vegum landsins

The objective of this paper was to identify the most dangerous segments of the Icelandic road system in terms of the number of accidents pr km and the rate of accidents pr million km travelled. First to identify the segments where the number of accidents is highest and where the risk of the individual traveller is the greatest. Second to evaluate if the association between the number and the rate of accidents is positive or negative. Third to identify the road segments that are the most dangerous in the sense of many accidents and great risk to individual travellers. Main roads outside urban centers were divided into 45 segments that were on average 78 km in length. Infrequently travelled roads and roads within urban centers were omitted. Information on the length of roads, traffic density and number of accidents was used to calculate the number of accidents per km and the rate of accidents per million km travelled. The correlation between the number and rate of accidents was calculated and the most dangerous road segments were identified by the average rank order on both dimensions. Most accidents pr km occurred on the main roads to and from the capital region, but also east towards Hvolsvöllur, north towards Akureyri and in the Mideast region of the country. The rate of accidents pr million km travelled was highest in the northeast region, in northern Snæfellsnes and in the Westfjords. The most dangerous roads on both dimensions were in Mideast, northern Westfjords, in the north between Blönduós and Akureyri and in northern Snæfellsnes. Most accidents pr km occurred on roads with a low accident rate pr million km travelled. It is therefore possible to reduce accidents the most by increasing road safety where it is already the greatest but that would however increase inequalities in road safety. Policy development in transportation is therefore in part a question of priorities in healthcare. Individual equality in safety and health are not always fully compatible with economic concerns and the interests of the majority.

Site manager safety training

PurposeThis paper aims to present findings on research funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) on factors contributing to superior safety performance amongst construction firms in the UK – specifically, the level of training received by site managers.Design/methodology/approachA random sample of 100 construction firms provided details of the type and duration of health and safety (H&S) training received by their site managers. This was analysed against a three point scale: up to two days training; the Site Managers Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS) five days training; and, National/Scottish Vocational Qualification for H&S – Level 3 or above. This was cross‐tabulated with their Accident Incidence Rate (AIR).FindingsThe results were as follows: up to two days training gave a mean AIR=1825; SMSTS mean AIR=1566; N/SVQ 3 or above mean AIR=211. This shows that increased durations of training are associated with lower accident rates. If duration is accepted as a measure of “level” of training then the findings support the hypothesis that increased levels of training lead to increased safety performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample was skewed with over 70 per cent having accident rates lower than the industry average. This is common in such studies and is difficult to control without losing data. It also meant non‐parametric tests were used. The findings cannot be reliably extended to organisations with turnover less than £4m.Practical implicationsThese findings add a new dimension to previous studies that have generally compared the mere presence, or otherwise, of training with safety performance.Originality/valueThe paper establishes a baseline in relation to the minimum level of H&S training for site managers as well as providing evidence for increased investment to achieve superior performance.

Incidents, accidents and fatalities in 40 years of German helicopter emergency medical system operations

Currently, approximately 100 000 helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) missions for patients are undertaken in Germany each year. Compared to the early years, risk has reduced significantly, but is still higher than commercial aviation or other airborne operations. The aim of the present study was to evaluate helicopter accidents and fatalities related to HEMS operations. Retrospective study of HEMS accidents in Germany. Analysis of accidents in the published flight accident reports of the German Federal Agency for Flight Accident Investigation (40-year period from 1970 to 2009). Data were collected by telephone interview with the operators, manual search of publications and by supplemental internet information. Data were analysed per 10 000 missions. For statistical analysis, Fisher[Combining Acute Accent]s exact test was used. A P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. During the period analysed, a total of 1.698 million HEMS missions (1970 vs. 2009: 61 vs. 98 471) were flown by a mean of 50 ± 27 (1 vs. 81) helicopters. To date, missions resulted in a total of 99 accidents with a mean of 2.4 ± 1.7 accidents per year (range 0-7). The accident rate was 0.57 (0-11.4) per 10 000 missions and the fatal accident rate was 0.11 (0-0.5). Some 64% of missions did not result in any injuries to occupants, whereas 19.2% were fatal. From the accidents analysed, 43.4% were due to collision with an obstacle during landing, take-off or hovering. Landing was the phase of flight most often associated with accidents (44.4%). The present study is the largest on HEMS accidents and the only one analysing an entire 40-year time course beginning with inception. In comparison to previous data, a significantly lower accident rate per 10 000 missions was found. Gathering data on the early years is nearly impossible, and further analysis is required to calculate the risk of fatality or identify injury patterns.

New European Union Approach to Civil Aviation Accident Investigation and Prevention

S INCE the early 20th century, safety has been a constant byword in aviation development [1]. Data published by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) show that the safety of aviation has substantially improved from 1945 onward [2]. In 2009, according to the International Association of Transport Airlines, the western-built hull-loss accident rate was one accident per 1.4 million flights. This means that if youwere to take a flight everyday, the odds are that you could go 3859 years without an accident. However, with air traffic steadily increasing, accidents do happen, despite the best efforts of regulators and industry. The investigation of accidents and the determination of the causes and contributing factors, aswell as producing recommendations for preventing similar situations in the future, are essential elements in the process of continuous safety improvement. For this reason among others, this transport mode retains a globally low accident rate [3–8]. To make flying safer, independent investigation into accidents is essential, as it is the surest way of identifying the causes of an accident and answering the fundamental questions of what really happened and what can be done to prevent similar incidents in the future [9–11].

Study on Process Control Characteristics of 22MN Fast Forging Hydraulic Press

With the rapid development of modern industry, more and more high requirements for forging velocity and control precision have been proposed. Because it can not only increase productivity, but also can reduce the loss of the workpiece and save raw materials. Due to some characteristics such as high pressure, large flow, heavy moving inertia and so on, the process control performance of the fast forging hydraulic presses often have difficulty in their coordination between rapidity and stability, large shock during pressure relief and flow relief, low control accuracy and high accident rate. To overcome the negative influence and improve forging press performance, it is important to design forging curve. 22MN fast forging hydraulic press adopts electro-hydraulic proportional control system, the simulation and test results approved that the fast forging hydraulic press has high control accuracy and works stably without shock.

Establishing a culture of perinatal safety in a community hospital

While unsafe behavior of frontline hospital staff, primarily physicians and nurses, is sometimes the proximal cause of adverse events, the critical importance of system-wide, hospital organizational factors is now being acknowledged(1,2). These organizational factors create the "safety culture" that influences the occurrence of these proximal failures.(3) The concept of safety culture originated in high-reliability organization theory, which was largely developed by a group of social scientists at the University of California at Berkeley who studied high-risk organizations that have achieved very low accident and error rates, for example, aircraft carrier flight decks, nuclear power plants and air-traffic control systems.(4-6) Safety culture refers to the enduring and shared beliefs and practices of organization members regarding the organization's willingness to detect and learn from errors.(7).

Fatalities and the changing distribution of business types in the United States

AbstractAs businesses in the “Goods Producing” sector moved their operations outside of the United States over the last several decades, relatively higher accident rates went with them. The net result has been a trend towards business types, mostly in the “Service Providing” sector, which have historically lower accident rates. In this article, the author will show that a significant portion of the reductions in fatal occupational accidents over the 16‐year span from 1992 to 2008 in the United States were the result of business trends away from the “Goods Producing” sector towards the “Service Providing” sector. This is not to say that improvements in accident prevention policies and procedures were not a major contributor to reductions in fatal occupational accidents as well. Instead, these policy and program improvements were augmented by the changing distribution of business types in the United States. The net result was a reduction in overall fatal occupational accident rates of ∼ 43.5% with ∼ 23% of this reduction resulting from the changing distribution of business types in the United States. With the limited analysis demonstrated in this article, it is not possible to infer this same effect for other spans of time. It seems likely, however, that any span of years that sees a decrease in the percentage of hours worked in “Goods Producing” sector with a corresponding increase in the percentage of hours worked in “Service Providing” sector would have a decrease in total fatal accidents attributable only to the changing distribution of business types in the United States. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2010.

Effect of Train Speed on Risk Analysis of Transporting Hazardous Materials by Rail

This paper considers the effect of train speed on railroad hazardous materials transportation risk. A statistical method was developed to estimate the speed-dependent conditional probability of release (CPR) of hazardous material from tank cars involved in accidents. The objective was to assess how accounting for speed affects the results of risk analysis. A case study of a representative hazardous materials route was conducted. In that case study, risk estimates were developed by using conventional, average-speed CPR, and the estimates were compared with those obtained by analyzing the same route using speed-dependent CPR. The differences in calculated risk indicate that the use of the speed-dependent CPR may be an important refinement for the accurate calculation of the risk of a route. The effects of track-class upgrades on risk were also considered. Track with higher Federal Railroad Administration classes has lower accident rates, but the higher permissible speeds increase the CPR if a tank car is derailed in an accident. Consequently, evaluation of the effect of track upgrades must account for both factors to understand the net impact on risk. Two scenarios were considered in the track-class upgrade analysis: upgrades without an increase in speed and upgrades with an increase in speed. The increased tank car hazardous material release rate at the higher speeds permissible on higher track classes was more than offset by the reduction in the accident rate for all the track-class upgrade scenarios considered. For the particular route analyzed in the case study, use of the speed-dependent CPR resulted in a slight increase in the overall risk estimate, and upgrading of Class 3 track provided the greatest reduction in risk. Such results will be route specific; however, the use of a speed-dependent CPR enables the more accurate analysis of local risk and provides a better evaluation of risk reduction options that involve changes in operating and track characteristics.

P0756 ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF NEWLY-QUALIFIED DOCTORS TOWARDS AIDS INFECTION

Background: Health-care professionals are at a high risk of AIDS infection, among hospitalized HIV infected patients. Proper training and knowledge accompanied by necessary preventive measures are by all means, the most significant factors which ensure low accident rates and furthermore lower contamination rates of the health-care personnel. Objective: Screening and assessment of knowledge and attitudes of newly-qualified doctors towards AIDS infection. Methodology: We conducted a cohort study with a screening questionnaire, which included demographic data and 16 questions associated with AIDS infection. 51 forms were filled in by specializing and rural doctors. The statistical analysis was conducted using the statistical program SPSS 13. Results: 25,5% (n=13) of the participants in this reserch have treated at least one patient for HIV infection, 19% (n=10), of them would willingly specialize in intense care of HIV patients and lastly 90.2%(n=46) believe that we should preserve the medical confidential for HIV patients. 96.1% (n=49) of the participants doctors knew that AIDS disease is caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), 88.2%(n=45) is aware that HIV virus damages the immune system and finally 92% (n=47) recognize HIV symptomatology.The vast majority of the doctors (98%,n=50) is aware that HIV infection is spread through sexual intercourse, blood contact and by sharing needles or syringes. Nevertheless, a percentage of 13.7% (n=7) believe that HIV transmission is feasible through kissing and 7.8% (n=15) through insects’ bites. At last 85-98% of the personnel refer that it’s familiar with the general preventive measures, which are usually applied to all HIV positive inpatients. Conclusions: Knowledge and attitude of new doctors towards AIDS infection is, in general terms satisfactory. Nevertheless, it’s imperative that we constantly inform and update newly-qualified doctors about AIDS infection, in order to minimize their inhibitions and compensate for the lack of knowledge, which is commonly observed in new doctors.

Effectiveness of Motorcycle Training and Licensing

Motorcycle crash fatalities in the United States have been increasing since 1997, when the total number of fatalities reached a record low. Motorcycle training programs were enacted before this rise, and many studies have aimed to show their effectiveness. The objective of this study is to review and synthesize the results of existing research on the effectiveness of motorcycle education courses and different licensing procedures. The effectiveness of programs is examined through the effect training has on accident rates, violation rates, and personal protective equipment use found through past research. Research to date has not consistently supported the notion that training is either effective or ineffective. Some studies have demonstrated that accident and traffic violation rates are lower for trained riders than for untrained riders, whereas others have demonstrated that they are higher for trained riders. Training increases the use of personal protective equipment among motorcyclists. Motorcycle licensing procedures have been shown to have different effects on accident rates. Lower accident rates have been observed in areas with stricter regulations for obtaining a license. The studies vary greatly in both the methods used for comparison and the rigor of their evaluation methodology. No standards for evaluation exist. The findings of these previous studies may be more a reflection of the methods used to evaluate motorcycle training than the effectiveness of training itself.

Assessing and Influencing Driver Attitudes in the United Kingdom

Accident and injury rates among car drivers have been consistently decreasing in the United Kingdom since 1994. The United Kingdom now has one of the lowest accident rates in the world. However, it is unclear to what extent this improvement is because of improvements in car and road design and legislation rather than improvements in driver behaviors. Indeed, although rates have decreased overall, among young and novice drivers they have been increasing. Driver attitudes are thought to underlie this trend and to constrain further improvements in the overall accident rate. Attitudes that affect driving performance have been explicitly included in the driver competency framework that now forms the basis of the United Kingdom's approach to driver training, assessment, and licensing. As part of these developments, the Driving Standards Agency commissioned Competence Assurance Solutions Ltd. to develop and evaluate an attitude assessment questionnaire, the Attitude Advisor, primarily for use with trainee drivers but potentially with other groups of drivers as well. The questionnaire's design is based on Ajzen's theory of planned behavior and a taxonomy of driver attitudes related to safety. Findings from trials of the prototype questionnaire provide support for the underlying theory and evidence for its criterion-related validity. In particular, scores on the questionnaire are related to age, gender, accident record, and driving convictions. This paper outlines options for how the Attitude Advisor may be used as part of driver training and personal development in the United Kingdom.